Several people have asked about my meantone
system, so I am posting it. If someone else has
proposed a similar system please excuse my ignorance.
I have worked on it on and off for about a year, this is the short version.
A more complete version will follow with musical
examples that you can listen to with the lute
alone, and then the lute, organ and viol playing together.
David Taylers Double Meantone temperament
Double meantone for the lute, archlute, theorbo, mandora & guitar
Is a system whereby fretted instruments may play
BOTH sharps and flats in tune at the same time.
It approximates the use of split keys on the keyboard.
This system is a primarily for continuo players, for obvious reasons.
Solo repertory usually must be refingered!!!!
It works very well with keyboard instruments in
meantone as well as the corresponding system for viol which I developed.
It assumes that you would like a meantone
ensemble with organ or harpsichord, lute (and
other fretted instruments) and viol in which the
tuning system is carefully coordinated for both chords and scales.
It also works very well with metal frets, though designed for gut frets.
It works with a wide range of string materials.
The system is very simple.
It uses a combination scordaturaalternate fret
system, thus eliminating the impossibility of a
system in which sharps and flats are played on
the same fret (unless you use tastini)
By reverse engineering the temperament, I came up with the following tuning:
g
d
a
e
B
G
D
This is essentially the same as the Milanese Mandolin.
The corresponding tuning for bass viol:
d
a
e
B
G
D
Note that the viol only changes one string.
Using a Korg orchestral tuner in FLAT MEANTONE,
tune the open strings and set the wide frets (frets 1, 3,5,7)
Then, by ear, or using the sharp meantone temperament, set the sharp frets
NB You may tweak the thirds anyway you like! Some
people may have trouble playing with very low thirds.
Lastly, adjust the open strings and second fret
to get a reasonable fifth on fret two with other
notes. This will retemper very slightly the F Sharp at Fret 2 on the 4th course
Depending on your string material, you may need
to slant the sixth and seventh frets slightly
This tuning can therefore give excellent major
and minor chords, but you MUST use the correct third.
For example, E major uses G sharp on the second
course, 6th fret, whereas the A Flat is provided on the first or third frets.
This tuning is an end result temperament, which
means that the actual sounds of the notes is
used, instead of the theoretical values. As such,
it will peacefully work with a properly tunes
keyboard instrument, especially one with split
keys. It also compensates for the actual
vibrating length and pitch drift on the higher courses.
In addition, slanted frets in this tuning will accomodate other temperaments.
Note that the variants are possible:
Theorbo in A a tone higher
Double reentrant instead of single reentrant
dt
To get on or off this list see list information at
http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
